Optimizing strategic behaviour in a dynamic setting in professional team sports

Dobson, Stephen; Goddard, John

Abstract

This article develops a dynamic game-theoretic model of optimizing strategic behaviour by football (soccer) teams. Teams choose between defensive and attacking formations and between a non-violent and a violent playing style, and can vary these choices continuously throughout each match. Starting from the end of the match and working backwards, the teams' optimal strategies conditional on the current state of the match are determined by solving a series of two-player non-cooperative subgames. Numerical simulations are used to explore the sensitivity of strategic behaviour to variations in the structural parameters. The analysis demonstrates that the strategic behaviour of football teams can be rationalized in accordance with game-theoretic principles of optimizing strategic behaviour by agents when payoffs are uncertain and interdependent.

Citation

Dobson, S., & Goddard, J. (2010). Optimizing strategic behaviour in a dynamic setting in professional team sports. European journal of operational research, 205(3), 661-669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2010.01.024

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 18, 2010
• Online Publication Date: Jan 22, 2010
• Publication Date: Sep 16, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: European Journal Of Operational Research
• Print ISSN: 0377-2217
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 205
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 661-669
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2010.01.024
• Keywords: Economics; Game theory; Sport (Football)
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/468338
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014